Rail joint



March 12, 1940. L, H; WBENOR 2,193,262

RAIL JOINT Filed Nov. 29, 1957 INVENTOR. H-

7 LEMU WISENOR ATTORNEY.

Patented Ma. 12, 1940 UNITED STATES greater RAIL JOINT Lemuel H. Wisenor, San Francisco, Calif. Application November 29, rear, Serial No. 177,038

1 Claim. (c1. 23am) by eliminating the click arising when the wheels of a car pass over said joint, also eliminating the use of fish-plates for holding the rail ends together.

Other objects and advantages are to provide a rail joint that will be superior in point of simplicity, inexpensiveness of construction, positiveness of operation, and facility and convenience in use and general efficiency.

In this specification and the annexed drawing, the invention is illustrated in the form considered to be the best, but it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to such form, because it may be embodied in other forms; and it is also to be understood that in and by the claim following the description, it is desired to cover the invention in whatsoever form it may be embodied.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a pair of rails, the ends of which are provided with a joint thereon constructed in accordance with my invention and showing the same in assembled relationship.

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the rail end, showing a rail having a tongue piece formed thereon.

Fig. 1

It is a matter of standard practice to secure the squared ,ends of the conventional railroad rail together by means of fish-plates which overlap the meeting ends of the abutting rails, and are bolted thereto, the said fish-plates being so bolted to the rail ends as to allow for expansion and contraction, and such other defiective forces as may occur in the use of the rails. Likewise it is conventional practice to secure the abutting rail ends not tightly together, but to allow a slight space, which space in turn causes a clicking or pounding action whenever the wheels of a car pass over said rails. Likewise the passage of the wheels over the rail joint causes a fracturing or breaking down of the shoulder of l the rail adjacent the joint, which further accentuates the noise of any vehicle passing over the said rails.

In the accompanying drawing, I have provided the rails land 2, each of which have a cross section prescribed by the 'rules of practice of rail construction. Each rail has a head portion 3, a web 4 and a bottom flange 5. With my invention I provide a rail which has a tongue piece 5 at one end thereof, and a slotted portion l at the opposite end of the rail. Thus the tongue piece of the rail l is adapted to fit into the slotted portion of the abutting and adjacent rail.

To provide adequate strength in the rail joint in order that it will carry all of the stresses and strains to which it is subjected, the web 5 at each of the opposite ends thereof is thickened. or enlarged asindicated at 8. The tongue piece 6 in the rail E has a flat parallel walled section formed by cutting away a portion of the head of the rail 8 and enlarged portion of the web t a slight distance inwardly from the end of the bottom flange 5. The upper face of the bottom flange 5 which the tongue piece 6 joins onto, is provided with a V-shaped trench on each of the opposite sides thereof as is indicated at 9. The opposite end of the same rail, or as shown in the figures of the drawing, at the abutting end of the rail 2 has the vertically disposed slot i therein, the dimensions of which are slightly larger than that of the tongue piece 6, to receive said tongue piece snugly therein. The bottom flange 5 of the rail is cut away from beneath the slotted portion 1 for approximately one half of the length thereof, to permit approximately onehalf of the slotted portion of the rail end to project beyond the end of the flange 5. The lower edge of the slotted rail end is tapered as at Ill at an angle which conforms to the V- shaped trench 9, whereby the bottom edge of said railend, shown in Fig. 2, will seat itself in the trench portion 9 provided on the upper face of the flange 5 of the rail l.

When the male and female ends of the rails and 2 are nested together, the heads of said the dovetailing or overlapping of the rail ends causes each rail end to be partly supported by the other so that any downward thrust applied to the head of the rail at the joint thereof, would be carried by both rails jointly. In order to secure the two rails together against axial displacement, I have provided aligned slots II and I2 through the tongue end and the groove end of the abutting rails, and through which a bolt. i3 passes for the purpose of holding the said joint together.

Whentwo ends of a rail are fitted together with my type of rail joint, it will be apparent that when a load is brought upon the top of the rails and caused to pass over the joint, the overlapping of one rail with respect to the other will prevent any weaving action and at the same time provides continuous metal under the wheels to prevent serious pounding or breaking down of the rail joint. Likewise, the rails must have an axial movement relative to each other by reason of the bolt slots so as to compensate for various weather conditions.

Having thus described this invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

In combination, a pair of adjoining rail sections, one of the rail sections having its end provided with a vertically disposed groove therein so that the tongue end of the other rail section may be received in said grooved portion, the said groove extending from the upper face of the base flange of said rail through the web and head portion thereof and the end of the rail in which the groove is formed having a portion of the base flange beneath the web cut away and having the opposite bottom edges of the web tapered beyond the end of the base flange; the other rail section having the head portion on opposite sides of the web cut away for a distance equal to the depth of the groove in the other rail end, and also having a portion of the base flange beneath the web cut away to leave the web in the form of a tongue piece which will approximate the area of the groove in the other rail end, the upper face of the remainder of the rail flange on opposite sides of the web tongue having trenches therein to receive the tapered lower edges of the web on the other rail end, whereby when the tongue piece on one rail end is t'elescoped end.- Wise in the groove in the other rail end, the engagement of the web on each rail end with the upper face of the flange on the other rail end prevents vertical movement of the respective rail sections relative to each other; and means passing through the telescoped ends of the rails to hold the same against axial displacement.

LEMUEL H. WISENOR. 

